In the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX, the Patriots and Seahawks have spent the week in luxurious hotels, but with two catches. The first is that every night until the big game, their coaches will arm themselves with flashlights and hotel master keys and then tiptoe into the players’ rooms to check that they’re in bed by curfew.

“It’s an important part of what we do,” said Patriots safeties coach Brian Flores.

The second rule: No visitors in players’ rooms or floors. Each team, in addition to bed-checking coaches, has its own security guards enforcing the policy. There are no exceptions, not even for especially significant others such as
Gisele Bündchen,
the supermodel wife of New England quarterback
Tom Brady.

For some players, that means a week of chastity. To be clear, it isn’t a team policy, but rather a byproduct of the curfew and no-visitors rule.

“Abstain for a week,” said Kevin Williams, a 34-year-old Seahawks defensive tackle who is married with four children. “I mean, what choice do you have? I know what I do. Why would you not?”

National Football League coaches are notorious control freaks, known to diagram even where players should stand in an offensive huddle. Thus, in the days before the sport’s biggest game, they try to ensure their players are focused.

Plentiful are stories about players gone amok the week before the Super Bowl. The Cincinnati Bengals played, and lost, in 1989 without fullback Stanley Wilson, who was suspended for cocaine use. Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson was arrested on a charge of soliciting sex from a prostitute in 1999, but played and later had the charge wiped for agreeing to participate in an AIDS awareness program. The Oakland Raiders got routed in the 2003 Super Bowl in part because they missed starting center Barret Robbins, who went to Mexico the day before the game in a fit caused by alcoholism and bipolar disorder.

Through a spokesman, Robinson declined to comment. Attempts to reach Wilson and Robbins were unsuccessful.

Rich Gannon, the Raiders quarterback in 2003, said he also learned after the Super Bowl that teammates broke curfew that week to go out drinking, which explained why many got exhausted during pregame warm-ups. “If the guys couldn’t behave themselves that week, to go to the Super Bowl, many of us for the first time, they’ll never get it,” said Gannon, now a SiriusXM radio host. “What more safeguards can you have in place?”

In today’s NFL, players spend the night before a regular-season game, whether home or away, in a hotel so coaches can guarantee they’re sleeping rather than partying.

The Super Bowl is like that, only multiplied by seven. The Seahawks arrived in Phoenix on Sunday, the Patriots on Monday. That means extra work for New England and Seattle assistant coaches, who are in charge of the bed checks.

New England and Seattle players said their curfew varies by night, but it is typically 11 p.m. or midnight. Patriots assistant special teams coach Joe Judge said that at the appointed hour, he makes the rounds with the master key to the rooms, though most players, anticipating the bed check, prop their doors open with the security latch.

Many players are already asleep by curfew. Brady, for instance, has said he typically has an 8:30 p.m. bedtime.

“If they’re asleep, then you don’t wake them up with a big knock,” said Seahawks tight ends coach Pat McPherson. “Go in there with a flashlight, make sure there’s a body in the bed.”

Patriots and Seahawks players and coaches said they’ve never had problems with curfew, or with pranks that might come with leaving a door open.

None of the players complain. “You have the curfew for that reason, take care of distractions, keep everybody’s mind focused on the goal,” said Seattle center Lemuel Jeanpierre. “It’s a business trip.”

The rules do make it hard to get alone time with a significant other. The players get five or six hours of free time per night, between practice and curfew. The families of Patriots players are staying in a nearby hotel, while Seahawks families are lodging in the same resort as the players.

That means conjugal visits in the spouse’s room are possible. Unless they have children. “You have to have a little discipline,” said Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski. “I’m sure if we win, I’ll have plenty of time for extracurricular activities.”

The other problem: being a professional football player is exhausting. “Once all the work’s done, you’re kind of tired,” said Patriots safety Patrick Chung. “You’re like, ‘Babe, I’m just going to take a nap.’ She’s like, ‘Nope, you’re going to bring yourself here.’ ”

Chung has had dinner with his wife and spent time at her hotel. “You have enough time,” he said. “You just gotta do what you gotta do and make it back by curfew.”